Out of this world.
Well NASA went to Nebraska on its a Space for Ag tour.
Scientists toured farms and they also talked with farmers about how they can
work together.
Well, this morning, we're joined by Laura Thompson, University of Nebraska
Extension educator.
Laura, thanks for taking the time to chat with us today.
So what is the connection actually, between NASA and agriculture here?
Yes, well, NASA actually has a long relationship with agriculture.
And we learned from the NASA scientists who are visiting that the planet that
they study most is actually Earth.
And so the NASA Earth Science Division is currently drawing observations from 25
satellites that orbit the planet.
And they have three more satellites that will be launched yet this year.
And these satellites range in size from a shoebox to a coach bus and are
collecting a variety of observations, including precipitation in the atmosphere,
soil moisture, vegetation, and pollution.
These missions are supporting tools that producers might be familiar with, like
the Drought Monitor and the USDA WASDE report.
And they're also producing other tools that are more focused on direct
applications to agriculture.
For example, a two week soil moisture outlook, as well as a tool called Open ET
that's producing frequent evapo transpiration information on an individual field
basis, with the goal of helping producers make more data driven irrigation
decisions and optimize their water use.
Now, as we mentioned, there was a tour with NASA on location in Nebraska.
What do they hope to learn from farmers in these visits?
Yes, well, we heard from NASA that their goal is really to take what they're
doing on a global and regional scale and make it impactful on a local level.
So these farm visits really allowed NASA to engage with producers and better
find out what data and tools they need to manage their complex operation.
So we visited three farms across the state the Knuth farm at Mead the Honeycutt
farm at Giltner.
And the Beatty farm at Lexington.
And all of these farmers are early adopters of technology and are actually
evaluating and testing new technologies on their operations through our Nebraska
on Farm Research Network.
And so this was a great chance for the producers to help to find how NASA might
fine tune their existing tools, or inform what tools get developed in the
future.
So what did you hear farmers share with NASA during the these gatherings?
Yes, well, we saw some consistent themes emerged.
For example, all of the farmers who participated are using satellite imagery in
some way in their operation, but mentioned that it wasn't necessarily easy to
use or didn't interface well with other farm decision information in a way that
would support their decision making.
We also heard that they're really looking for tools to help better manage water
and nitrogen on their farms.
And that, really, they want tools that will help them help inform their
decisions and not simply tell them what to do.
What do you hope might result from this meeting these meetings that took place,
Laura?
Yeah, well, we're hoping that the tools that NASA produces will really be
impactful for farmers on that local decision basis.
All right.
Well, thank you very much for joining us again.
Laura Thompson UNL, Extension Educator talking with us about NASA in
agriculture.
Again, thank you very much for taking the time to join us this morning.